2007.03.05 - In November 2006, the National Space
Society(NSS) launched the NSS Space Settlement Art Contest. The
purposes of the contest were to generate new artwork depicting space
settlement; encourage artists in the creation of such art; and to
raise public awareness of the concepts of space settlement by
maintaining an online space art gallery and featuring the best
contest art in the NSS Space Settlement 2008 Calendar.

To insure the success of the contest, sponsors generously donated
over $10,000.00 of prizes to the contest. Principal sponsors include
Pandromeda Inc., Beyond-Earth Enterprises, Artnow Online, The Moon
Society, Huntsville Alabama L5 Society, Chicago Society for Space
Studies, Oklahoma Space Alliance, and the National Space Society.

For three months (November 2007 thru January 2008) artists from
around the world submitted their art to the competition. Of the more
than 100 entries submitted to the contest, seventy were accepted. At
the close of the submission period, contest judges faced the daunting
task of choosing just 12 winning images for the calendar.

An award winning panel of judges for the contest was assembled by
Chief Judge Jim Plaxco, chair of the NSS Space Settlement Calendar
Committee. Heading up the panel of judges were two world renounced
space artists: David A. Hardy, author and a winner of the Sir Arthur
Clarke Award, from the United Kingdom; and Pat Rawlings, Science
Applications International Corp. Art Director, of the United States.
Rounding out the panel of judges were George Whitesides, Executive
Director of the National Space Society and Peter Kokh, President of
the Moon Society and Editor of Moon Miners Manifesto.

With voting completed, winning artists were from Germany, Poland,
Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States. According to Jim
Plaxco, " The imagination and artistic mastery exhibited by the
artists really impressed us. It was tough having to choose just 12
works of art. What we really needed were more months in the
year."

GRAND PRIZE

The Grand Prize winning image came from the Orbital Settlements
category and the winning artist from Germany. The picture The
Return To Abalakin by Alexander Preuss excelled in its
representation of a toroidal space city of a million inhabitants. As
Grand Prize winner, The Return To Abalakin will be featured on the
cover of the NSS Space Settlement 2008 Calendar.

SETTLEMENTS IN ORBIT

Winning First Prize in the Orbital Settlements category is a
wonderfully romantic beach view of a sunrise in an O'Neill Colony.
Islands
of the Gods is the creation of Richard Bizley of the United
Kingdom.

One other submission from the Orbital Settlements category that
will be featured in the calendar is Inside
Orbital City by Murphy Elliott of Florida, USA.

SETTLEMENTS ON THE MOON

Taking first place in the Moon Settlement category is Warren
Turner of the United Kingdom. His piece Moonbase
Preparations features mining operations on the lunar surface.

Other images from the Moon Settlement category to be featured in
the calendar are: Descent
Into The Dark Side by Raymond Cassel featuring a night time lunar
orbit view of a moon base;

The
Soaring Arena by Bill Wright of Maryland, USA illustrating the
potential for human powered flight inside large lunar arenas.

SETTLEMENTS ON MARS

The First Prize winner in the Martian Settlements category is
Javier Arizabalo from Spain. His Mars
From A Young Perspective features a spacesuited boy gazing
dreamingly into the distance as a rocket lifts off.

Other images chosen from the Martian Settlement category for
inclusion in the calendar are: Second
Outpost by Janek Kozicki of Poland featuring an early outpost on
the Martian surface;

Mars
Gardens by Alex Aurichio of New York, USA which illustrates the
use of bioengineered plants to enhance the martian atmosphere.

SETTLEMENTS AMONG THE ASTEROIDS

In the Asteroid Settlements category, First Prize was awarded to
Dr. Chee Ming Wong of the United Kingdom for his Asteroid
Settlement: Slingshot To The Galaxy. This imaginative work
illustrates the use of an asteroid's raw materials for the creation
of human space settlements.

Other images in the Asteroid Settlement category which will be
featured in the NSS Space Settlement 2008 Calendar are: A Mining
Settlement On 90 Antiope by Walter Myers from Illinois, USA;

City
Under Glass by Raymond Cassel from Colorado, USA illustrating the
tethering of asteroid cities for creating artificial gravity.

It is anticipated that the NSS Space Settlement 2008 Calendar will
be available for sale initially in May at the International Space
Development Conference.

The National Space Society (NSS) is an independent, educational,
grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation of a
spacefaring civilization. The society also publishes Ad Astra
magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important
developments in space.

NOTE: This effort was quite a learning experience. We got
some good art, but not necessarily the kind of depictions of
settlements (hundreds or thousands of people) we wanted. Many artists
used acience fiction art commonplaces most unlikely ever to become
real: glass domes, for instance. But if this calendar is successful
commercially, we will want to do this annually, branding the name,
"Space Settlement Calendar." Our goal is first to catch the eye, then
to expose people to mind-expanding ideas. - Peter Kokh